These are two beautifully curated vignettes of noteworthy women who have wielded enchantment while astride a broomstick, who were steadfast in their pursuit of truth and justice, and who created much-needed spaces for the younger generation of females to breathe, soar, and simply be who they were meant to be.

I always say with absolute certainty how books find me at the right time. Here is another clear instance when I have been proven right. I had my initial reservations about the picturebook, primarily because it focuses exclusively on just American women, and I want a more expansive view that encompasses women of the world who persisted. However, I was surprised at how ferociously this book managed to touch my core as a woman, notwithstanding my not being from America.

Each of the women represented here come from different disciplines or professions: from being a journalist to conductor of the underground railroad, from a medical doctor to a Supreme Court Justice.

It is to Chelsea Clinton’s credit that she managed to capture the essence of each woman’s life narrative into a few lines, yet retaining its power and the underlying struggle that prompted each women’s persistence, tenacity, courage.

What really caught my attention, though, were the selected quotes from each women that seem to be speaking to me directly, at this particular point in my life. As the trite adage goes: The Struggle is Real. As a female academic who also happens to be married, and a person of colour who has obtained her PhD degree from what is considered a developing country, and serving in a city-state different from my country of birth for the past ten years – this is not something abstract or hypothetical for me. Not only is the struggle real, it continues up to this day, regardless of how much I have contributed to my field and to society in general. It is simply the way it is.

I was especially taken by the extracted quote from Helen Keller:

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. – Helen Keller

Each quote from the women featured in this book shows this admirable and unyielding decision to pursue their truth, regardless of how people perceive it. Too often, there is this impetus amongst institutions to box people into clearly-defined categories, something which I find to be extremely small-minded and confining; it suffocates my free spirit. Then I see this full-page spread:

On occasion, one comes across a book that is so bewitching and so unclassifiable that, as a book blogger, the words that I need to recommend this book to as many people as I possibly could, simply elude me.

This book celebrates Magical Women Writers from Toni Morrison to Anna Akhmatova, from Forugh Farrokhzad to Yumiko Kurahashi. As noted in Pam Grossman’s Foreword:

“… the Witch is arguably the only female archetype that has power on its own terms. She is not defined by anyone else. Wife, sister, mother, virgin, whore – these archetypes draw meaning based on relationships with others. The Witch, however, is a woman who stands entirely on her own. She is more often than not an outsider, and her gift is transformation. She is a change agent, and her work is sparked by speech: an incantation, a naming, a blessing, a curse.

Who is more worthy of this moniker than female writers, who themselves conjure worlds out of words?”

If anything, this book made me wish that I can make a Literary Babaylan series of powerful women writers from Asia or who are in diaspora, written with just the right amount of sizzle sizzle, double double, toil and trouble – quite similar to the subterranean enchantment with which the life narratives of Audre Lorde (Warrior Witch of Otherness, Bodies Electric and Sisterhood), Jamaica Kincaid (Sorceress of Islands, Venom and Histories), and Zora Neale Hurston (Conjurer of Hurricanes, Zombies, and Tall Tales) are written here.

While others may not take to the way these female writers’ life narratives have been depicted, I found it to be utterly FASCINATING. In fact, the otherworldly vignettes honour these women’s ethereal nature and transcendental perception of the world as portrayed through their witchy words.

I also blame this book for how my TBR stack has exploded even more than usual. While a few of the thirty women are familiar to me, I am indebted to this collection for knowing even more female authors that are previously unknown to me such as Mirabai from India; Joy Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation; Yumiko Kurahashi from Japan just to cite a few.

In fact, I am seriously contemplating having a Literary Witches Year in 2019, whereby we will just be reading and featuring female voices throughout the year. I will have to think about this some more. At any rate, here are a few books that I am hoping to find and read, based on this remarkable collection.

Myra is a Teacher Educator and a registered clinical psychologist based in Singapore. She has edited five books on rediscovering children’s literature in Asia (with a focus on the Philippines, Malaysia, India, China, Japan) as part of the proceedings for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content where she serves as the Chair of the Programme Committee for the Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference. While she is an academic by day, she is a closet poet and a book hunter at heart. When she is not reading or writing about books or planning her next reads or meeting up with her book club friends, she is smashing that shuttlecock to smithereens because Badminton Is Life.

13 comments on “[Monday Reading] Vignettes of Women Who Weave Words and Who Stood Their Ground in “Literary Witches” and “She Persisted””

“I am seriously contemplating having a Literary Witches Year in 2019, whereby we will just be reading and featuring female voices throughout the year.” — Yessssssssssssss. A+++, absolutely delightful idea

She Persisted is inspiring. I haven’t read it yet, but She Persisted Around the World has recently been published. I loved that you mentioned that books find you at the right time – books are powerful!

Love hearing about both, but that second one is intriguing, Myra. I have a book titled Women of Words (Teacher & Powell) that I purchased a long while ago, partly for a student who was studying a few women authors. But this one, Literary Witches and its precept looks fabulous. I know Joy Harjo somehow? but don’t know the others except by name. I have taught Annie John by Jamaica Kinkaid, a lovely story of adolescent angst/growing up! Thanks for sharing so much today!

Ah, Lisa beat me to it — was just going to say that I enjoyed She Persisted and to make sure you knew about She Persisted Around the World. It was just published March 6th and might be of great interest to those outside the US. Have a great reading week and thanks for sharing so many great titles with #imwayr!

I have been hesitant to pick up She Persisted for the reasons you mentioned above: it’s focus on American Women. After reading the rest of your comments, I feel better about it already.
I’m in for a year of reading of literary witches. I knew the name of Joy Harjo, but haven’t read anything. Crazy Brave: A Memoir is now on my list.